Below, you’ll find our results along relevant information from both sets of data. Now– this is important: just because the names match doesn’t mean they’re the same person. Because the White House doesn’t release any other form of identity information besides the name, we’re unable to tell whether or not the name in one dataset actually refers to the same person in the other. John Adams in one dataset may be a different John Adams in another.

This is intended to be a starting point for journalists and citizen investigators, but isn’t a reliable list of lobbyists who’ve been to the White House. Instead, it is a list of names of lobbyists who share names with people who have been to the White House and could be the same person. Whether they are or not is up to you to figure out.

We’ve updated this dataset and removed names of lobbyists who are no longer lobbying. This dataset only includes lobbyists who’ve filed since 2009. The previous dataset included potential matches for deceased lobbyists and those who haven’t been lobbyists in years, and people who couldn’t have possibly visited the White House during the current administration as lobbyists. The new data is more refined and more accurate.